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1917 
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The Acid Test 



What Happened at Red Gables, the Strafford 

Country Place, When Someone 

Drank a Poisoned Cocktail 



BY 



ROBERT EMMET MacALARNEY 



The Acid Test 



"Being the Story of a Panic at Vivian Strafford's House-Party 

in Which Cowardice and Bravery (Conjured up by 

Sudden Fear of Death) Blend to Produce an Allov. 



BY 

ROBERT EMMET MacALARNEY 

Author of "Ging Yuk, " etc. 



Privately Printed by the Author 



The Nation Press, Inc., 20 Vesey Street, N. Y. 



A v 






Copyright, 1917, by Robert Emmet MacAlarney 

JAN 22 1917 



0>bfi 






THE AUTHOR RESERVES ALL DRAMATIC RIGHTS 
TO THIS STORY. 

©CLA453745 
I. 



Vivian Strafford is the daughter of William Strafford, an 
eminent research chemist. Strafford has inherited splendid social 
standing and a fortune. He has never had to employ his scientific 
attainments to earn money. 

Strafford has two enthusiasms, his only daughter — he is a 
widower — and his experiments. He is a member of learned 
American and foreign scientific bodies. And he maintains a per- 
fectly appointed research laboratory at his handsome country 
estate, near a large city. 

Vivian Strafford is a vigorous, outdoors type, a sort of Eleo- 
nora Sears (the dashing Newport beauty so often mentioned in 
Town Topics and the New York society columns). Her charm 
and her father's money have combined to make her a much de- 
sired matrimonial prize. 

Strafford is somewhat absentminded. He is not the spectacled, 
college-professor sort, with the comedy touch. He is a dignified, 
sophisticated gentleman — even a bit of the man-of-the-world — ■ 
with a "one track mind." When not absorbed in his experiments 
he is a gracious host, a brilliant conversationalist, and possessed of 
eager sympathy for the problems of young folks and women. 

Vivian, naturally, is being sought in marriage by many swains. 
Her father is deeply interested in her attitude toward them. He 
tells her that she is experimenting in the chemistry of love, a 
more volatile substance than his laboratory shelves contain. 

Vivian is really considering making a decision between two 
out of her pressing suitors. Among her friends this pair of 
lovers is regarded as leading all the others. The two are Donald 
Havens and Cyril Manton. 

Havens is a quiet, forceful youth. He is a bridge-building 
engineer, beginning to acquire a reputation. He is undemonstra- 
tive, utterly courageous, but has a contempt for "showing off." 
Havens has no inherited social status. Nor has he any money 
save what he earns. He is a self-made young man, of good, 
middle class stock. And in every sense he is a gentleman. 

Manton is the converse of Havens. He is a trifle loud in 
manner and clothes, a fine athlete, but the sort who is given to 
swagger. A bit too florid in type to be quite wholesome. On the 
surface he is a likeable chap, and genuine. Really he is crafty, 
a rounder who will hunt after any pretty woman he encounters, 
and hard-up through extravagance. Manton has been born into 
excellent social position, and trades on this. He conceals the 
fact that he is up against it financially, is using his family as an 
asset in making an advantageous alliance. Ts in love with Vivian 
as much as a man of his polygamous nature can be. 



Strafford, with an older man's keenness, has read the pair of 
suitors aright, he thinks. He favors Havens, but means to let 
Vivian have her own way. He knows the futility of interference. 

Vivian has as a sort of companion-secretary Ella Bailey. Ella 
is a sweet, shy type, the antithesis of the vigorous personality of 
her employer. There is a great fondness between Ella and 
Vivian. Vivian appreciates the fact that Ella is forced to earn 
her living, although by intelligence and innate refinement as much 
entitled to a life of luxury as Vivian. Ella loves Manton. Her 
clinging, trusting disposition has fastened upon his robust per- 
sonality. Her one obsession, next to her devotion for Manton, 
is a fear lest her employer may discover the truth. Manton 
lets her fancy that he cares for her, that he is not really in 
earnest in his pursuit of Vivian. But Ella, feeling the twinges 
of remorse, has moments of terrible doubt. Ella has com- 
promised herself with Manton. She is not treated as a menial 
in the Strafford home. But she is not made one of the family, 
either. She does not sit at table with Vivian and her father. 
She is in the background, with Manton snatching unobserved 
moments in her society. She is worried. She has reason to 
be. For she knows, and tells Manton, that their sin will be found 
out if they are not married soon. She is to have a child. 

Vivian is on the point of deciding between Manton and 
Havens. She likes both men. She has a respect for Havens' 
brilliancy and likes him too. But, being an outdoors woman 
herself, the athletic prowess and attractive swagger of Manton 
allure her. She decides to give a house-party over the week-end, 
from Friday until Monday. During this week-end she will 
make up her mind. 

Vivian intends to tell her father at breakfast. She directs 
Ella to write notes of invitation to a dozen guests. Ella slips a 
piteous little scrawl of her own into the "bid" which goes to 
Manton. This scrawl tells Manton that she must see him alone 
when he comes — she is desperate. Therefore when Manton ar- 
rives at Red Gables, the Strafford country house, he is in the 
almost angrily resentful frame of a mind which a man of his 
calibre would automatically assume. With the hint that he 
must marry Ella, his affection takes flight. He realizes that the 
pretty little secretary is now only an incubus. 

Vivian, in the breakfast room, finds her father absent. Hod- 
son, the English butler, says that Mr. Strafford has been working 
in his laboratory all night at one of his experiments. Vivian 
raps on the laboratory door and coaxes her father out. 

While she pours his coffee, she informs him of the coming 
house-party. Makes him promise to forget test tubes for the 
week-end, adds that she will decide between Manton and Havens 
before the next Monday. Strafford agrees to drop chemical re- 
search for that period. He is still full of his recent work, how- 



ever, and insists upon recounting to his daughter the results 
to date. 

Strafford has been searching for the line of demarcation be- 
tween disease-arresting and tissue-destroying elements. The dis- 
covery of such a median line would, of course, result in the 
revolutionizing of medical practice. 

Vivian, her mind occupied with the approaching house-party, 
pays but half-attention to her father's remarks. But she listens 
with a show of real interest when he draws from his pocket a 
small vial. It is filled with an amber colored fluid. 

Strafford holds it up, informs her that as a by-product of 
his experimentation he has stumbled across one of the sort of 
poisons which must have been employed by the Borgias long 
ago, the sort of non-detectable poison whith made murder easy. 

Vivian hears her father declare that the poison in the bottle 
is tasteless and odorless, that there is no possible antidote to 
undo its effects, and that its effects are so subtle that they are 
not apparent until three days have elapsed. It is the safe recipe 
for murder. The criminals of the world would bid against 
each other for possession of the formula for making it — a 
formula which he alone knows and will never reveal. Strafford's 
interest in the deadly fluid is purely that of the scientist, who 
has stumbled across something interesting while on the trail of 
another and more important object. 

The Red Gables house-party arrive — most of them. Promi- 
nent among them are : 

Mrs. Clint Morton, a horsey and doggy widow of several 
years' standing. Mrs. Morton is one of the slangy, a trifle-too- 
stout sort. She affects mannishness, likes to exchange Broad- 
wayish expressions over a convivial high-ball, smokes ciga- 
rettes, is the high complexioned type you see in the Biltmore 
lobby at the crush hour. But underneath her assumed brusque- 
ness and deliberate unconventionally she has a good heart, a 
ready ear for the person who needs sympathy or money. She 
has a genuine maternal streak which has been lavished upon 
her animal pets in lieu of children. Mrs. Morton takes a liking 
to Ella, the shy secretary. The blunt widow divines that some- 
thing is worrying the girl, and tries to mother her. Ella, not 
understanding Mrs. Morton's sort, is uncomfortable as a result. 

Tagging at Mrs. Morton's boot-heels comes Ledyard Orrings- 
by. a brilliant corporation and estate lawyer. Orringsby has 
been born into the set wherein he moves. His life has been 
the untroubled professional one of the man whose path has 
been smoothed for him. He is dignified, sarcastic, handsome 
in a rather angular way, and devoted to the sporting widow, 
with whom he has really very little in common. Tt is opposite 
attracting opposite. Orringsby's devotion to the widow is taken 



6 

as a matter of course by everyone, including the widow herself. 
Mrs. Morton is fond of the bachelor attorney, is merely hold- 
ing off until her whim to tease him vanishes. 

Identified in the group of guests is Ned Fraser, one of the 
average well groomed youths, fresh from college, and enjoying 
his first go at flirtation and frivolity. Ned is an Apolloesque 
boy of twenty-one, moneyed and of fine family. He is keen on 
this particular house-party not because he is one of the pursuers 
of Vivian, but because he knows he will see there Dorothy 
Wortley. 

Dorothy Wortley is the daughter of the Rev. Dr. Benjamin 
Wortley, rector of All Sinners,' the richest church in the city 
nearest to Red Gables. She is a debutante, and her parents, ut- 
terly worldly minded, are angling for a rich husband in her 
behalf. Dorothy — Dot, as she is called — is a snappy little society 
chit. She has been bred with one aim, to ally herself with 
money and social station. Now she has emerged from finishing 
school, and is perfectly willing to marry Ned Fraser when he asks 
her. Fraser is a really good catch. 

Ned Fraser has one habit, in common with others of his ilk — 
he is too fond of high-balls. He is not a sodden drinker, but 
is given to being pleasantly jingled, in which condition he is 
amusing and rather clever. 

The Rev. Dr. Wortley and his wife — the latter a nervous but 
calculating clergyman's spouse — appear at Red Gables, minus 
their daughter, who will join them twenty-four hours later — she 
is attending another house-party. This disgruntles Ned Fraser. 
His gloom is a matter for jest on the part of the others. Fraser's 
disappointment because of the failure of Dot Wortley to appear 
promptly starts him to licking up a few too many high balls in 
the billiard room. 

The Rev. Dr. Wortlev is a rich man's preacher. Once, at 
the beginning of his pulpit career he was the earnest, fiery 
young castigator of sin and sinners. Rut years have dulled 
his zeal and tamed his now disillusioned soul. He has been 
broken to harness by the power of money. He gives the pew- 
holders of All Sinners' the comfortable Sundav pap tb^v wish — 
and no more. And his wife is a pale echo of him. They have 
but one desire, to remain in their comfortable parish, eat the 
crumbs from millionaires' tables, and allv their pretty daughter 
to a youth from the world of society and wealth. Dot Wortley 
has cut her own way to popularity — and Ned Fraser's henrt — 
bv a snappy personality, and her joyous revelling in the trivialities 
of existence. 

Vivian, her father watching with keen and somewhat ammed 
interest, now beein<; to rondnrt her final evneriment in weighing 
the worth of the devotion of Havens and Manton. 



Manton, annoyed and resentful because of Ella's letter, holds 
himself aloof from the secretary at first. She is unable to 
contrive a word alone with him. Mrs. Morton and Vivian both 
see the girl is seriously worried, but cannot prove the cause. 
Vivian, throughout, is sweet and friendly to her secretary, and 
Ella worships her employer. 

Havens and Manton eye each other, recognizing that they 
are rivals, that this may be the critical moment. Manton, real- 
izing that his athletic prowess is an asset, gets up a cross country 
drag-hunt, the morning after the party assembles. Prominent 
in the field are Vivian, Mrs. Morton, Havens and Manton, all 
good riders. 

Vivian, Havens and Manton are away in the lead, out- 
distancing the field. The chase swings them abruptly from a 
meadow to some rough country work, with a nasty stone-fence 
and water jump dead ahead. As they approach, Havens spurs 
close to Vivian ; with a twist of the wrist he pulls up short his 
own mount and that of Vivian. Manton, however, whips his 
horse and intends to take the jump, but at the last moment his 
animal refuses. 

Vivian, furious, asks Havens what he meant. HaA^ens tells 
her the jump was dangerous — she might have been killed. Man- 
ton is manhandling his horse, vowing to make it clear the ob- 
struction — the rest of the riders have swerved widely to one 
side. 

Vivian, a lover of courage above all other things, has a pre- 
monition that Havens is afraid. Hating cowardice, and herself 
red corpuscled and over-rating — as outdoors folk always do — 
the bravery of physical prowess, she decides to put Havens 
and Manton to the test together. She agrees not to try to make 
the jump herself, but dares both men to clear it. 

Manton gladly consents. He has absolutely no fear of a 
test like this. Havens declines, quietly. He announces to Vivian 
that risking one's neck to please the whim of a pretty woman 
is rank idiocy ; that gambling with one's life should be reserved 
for a time when the loss of that life would serve some good 
purpose. 

Vivian is shocked — this smacks of genuine cowardice to her. 
Manton, jubilant, seeing that this is his moment, belabors his 
fractious mount, and finally makes him take the jump. The horse 
blunders, but clears. Brings up, throwing his rider heavily, and 
breaking his own foreleg. 

Manton is shaken and bruised. But he gets up gamely, and 
receives the approval of Vivian. Havens knows that Manton 
has scored, tells Manton that he (Manton) can take his 
(Havens') mount and ride back to Red Gables. Havens will go 
to a farm-house near-by. get a gun and put the crippled hunter 
out of his suffering. Vivian, loving animals, weakens for a 



8 

second; pats the head of the fallen hunter. Then, swept away 
by the thrill of the moment — which has, she thinks, revealed to 
her that she loves Manton, the courageous, and not Havens, the 
calculating — she rides to the house with Manton. 

Vivian on the way back to Red Gables listens to Manton's 
impetuous declaration of love, and accepts him as they walk up 
the stable lane, leading their horses. Vivian is very happy, 
thinking that she and Manton are kindred souls. For a moment 
Manton, freed from thoughts of Ella, fancies himself whole- 
heartedly in love with his hostess. 

Havens gets a rifle from the farm-house, shoots the suffering 
horse. Mrs. Clint Morton, muddy and a bit shaken by a fall of 
her own, canters up, far behind the chase. She finds Havens, 
gun in hand, regarding the dead hunter. Learns what has hap- 
pened, and walks to the farm-house with him, giving him a bit of 
good advice. Mrs. Morton's sympathies are with Havens. 

Vivian, very uplifted and happy, plans that her engagement 
to Manton shall be announced at dinner that evening. She tells 
her father, and receives his blessing — but she knows he thinks 
she has made a mistake. Strafford promises to make the an- 
nouncement to the house-party guests during dinner. 

In the big living-room of Red Gables before dinner Xed 
Fraser eagerly waits for Dot Wortley to appear. She has 'phoned 
that she is motoring out from the city. But she is late, and 
meanwhile Fraser has sipped up one too many drinks to be ab- 
solutely normal. He is just a bit off, enough to be foggy re- 
garding details. 

The guests gather in the living-room, which is a huge one, 
with an old-fashioned fireplace. On the fireplace shelf is a 
clutter of bric-a-brac, and a cumbersome gilt and glass clock. 

The guests, in dinner attire, gather around the fireplace. 
Strafford, while Vivian laughingly protests — alleging that her 
father had pledged himself not to talk shop — tells about his 
experimenting. He displays the vial containing the poison he 
had shown to Vivian the day before, descanting upon its deadli- 
ness. 

Xear the fireplace is a table with a large salver containing 
many empty cocktail glasses. They are awaiting filling by Hod- 
son, the butler, and the second man, who are now engaged — 
in the butler's pantry — preparing the pre-dinner drinks in several 
silver shakers, big ones. The tray contains glasses sufficient 
for all of the guests, and five or six over. 

Strafford, finding that his guests are interested, steps to the 
tray of cocktail glasses and pours into one of the glasses some 
water from a silver thermos bottle. The cocktail glass is half 
full of water. Then Strafford adds a few drops of the amber 
colored liquid in the vial. The water takes on the color of the 
amber liquid. It might be a half portion of Bronx cocktail. 



Strafford passes the glass around, remarking that the solution 
is absolutely deadly, yet the poison in it is tasteless and odorless. 
The women shudder as they timidly touch and sniff at the glass. 

Ned Fraser, moping over the non-arrival of Dot Wortley, has 
the glass containing the poison in his hand, when the honk of 
a motor horn is heard. Dot Wortley and another belated house- 
party woman guest are arriving under the porte cochere. There 
is a general movement toward the wide hallway to welcome the 
newcomers. 

The group is in very high spirits. Everyone is laughing and 
talking. The impression made by the fact that they have been 
handling a glass of deadly poison has been fleeting. They are 
in too high pitched a key of society chatter to be depressed 
by that fact long. Xed Fraser, perceptibly affected by alcohol, 
is slower than the others. They, in the mood to gaily lay 
hold of the slightest moment of diversion, rush out to the hall to 
greet the latecomers. Fraser is left behind, eyeing the glass in 
his hand a bit uncertainly. Then he too pushes forward to 
greet the girl he has been impatiently awaiting. He holds no 
cocktail glass now. 

Fraser has put the cocktail glass with the poison on the 
fireplace mantel, unconsciously shoving it into concealment be- 
hind one of the gingerbread cornices of the ornate clock, which 
is an eight-day affair. 

While Dot Wortley and her friend are being welcomed Hod- 
son, the butler, and the second man enter the living room, with 
the several full cocktail shakers on a small tray. 

Hodson and the second man begin to pour Bronx into the 
waiting glasses. Two shakers are emptied. Hodson with the 
third and last shaker, finds a partly filled cocktail glass on the 
tray. The second man has gone back to the butler's pantry, 
carrying the smaller tray with the two emptied shakers. Hod- 
son pauses, inspects the half filled glass, looks up as to ask 
the second man about it, but too late to catch the latter's eye 
as he disappears through the swinging door. Then, thinking 
that this is merely the heeltaps of the last emptied shaker which 
have been tilted into the glass, Hodson fills the glass from his 
shaker, and completes the trav charging. All of the glasses are 
full. 

Hodson solemnly circulates with the cocktails. By this time 
most of the guests have streamed into the living room. Or- 
ringsby and Mrs. Morton are together. Mrs. Morton takes her 
cocktail thirstily, but Orringsby refuses, with a wry face, show- 
ing that he resents his abstinence. It is doctor's orders — Or- 
ringsby is fending off an attack of rheumatic gout. Vivian and 
Strafford pledge their guests. 

Manton, cocktail in band, is jesting with the woman who lias 
motored up with Dot Wortley — near the hall door. He catches 



10 

a glimpse of Ella going toward the staircase from the rear of 
the house. Just then the woman he is conversing with steps fur- 
ther into the drawing room, exchanging remarks with someone 
else. Hodson and the tray are close. With sudden inspiration 
Manton snatches a second cocktail from the tray, and, unnoticed 
by the others, goes toward the staircase. 

Manton stops Ella, who would talk tragically to him in the 
minute she has for it. But he rallies her, waves off her gloom, 
kisses her, and thrusts the drink into her hands. Ella, the sort 
of woman who can easily be influenced for the moment, yields. 
Clinks glasses with him as he whispers that he'll straighten every- 
thing out — he means to "straighten things Out" with money, which 
he can raise when his engagement to the heiress daughter of the 
society chemist is made public. Then she darts upstairs, still 
unseen, and Manton, relieved by her smile, returns to the living 
room. 

Amid the cocktails and gay chatter the second man announces 
dinner. Hodson strides to preside in the dining room, and an- 
other servant collects the emptied glasses, gathering them to- 
gether for removal on the large tray. When this is done there 
are still five or six undrained glasses on the tray. These are 
carried to the butler's pantry by the second man. A bit later, 
by permission of the dignified Hodson, they are taken to the 
kitchen. There, during one of his proper absences from the 
dining room, the butler (after the manner of butlers) permits 
the left-over cocktails to be drunk by himself and his fellows. 
The French chef drains one, the head chauffeur another. Hodson 
pledges their healths in the drinks he helped mix, and then re- 
turns to the dining-room. The servants not lucky enough to 
get in on the round of cocktails envy Hodson and his favorites. 
Everyone of the house-party guests — excepting Orringsby — has 
drunk a cocktail. Ella, Hodson, and five other servants have also 
drunk from the tray. 

Mrs. Morton and Orringsby sit beside each other at table. 
Their love affair is progressing; the lawyer's persistence is about 
to succeed. Vivian sits between Manton and Havens, the latter 
not making a show of his gloom, but plainly sober and thoughtful. 
Vivian sparkles, and Manton half gloats. This is his night of 
triumph. Dot Wortley flirts accentedly with Ned Fraser. Her 
parents regard her with placid satisfaction. Upstairs Ella, the 
hopelessly compromised secretary, weeps under the reaction 
from cocktail and the cheering words of the man she loves. 

Dinner is jolly, and Strafford forgets that he has an announce- 
ment to make. Vivian has to remind him, having signalled to 
him in vain. Strafford gets up, lifts his wine glass — and then 
puts it down again abruptly. He has remembered the poison in 
the cocktail glass. 



11 

Strafford recalls that young Fraser was the last one to hold 
the glass, fie asks -braser what he did with it. The table ceases 
laugnter. Strafford's manner and words are serious. Fraser, un- 
der the spell 01 his flirtation, and still a bit thick mentally because 
of his drinking, cannot recall wnat he did with it. He thinks he 
put the glass on the tray. Stratford and he leave the table. They 
search lor the glass in vain. The others wait. 

V lvian senses better than anyone else { having known in ad- 
vance about the terrible character of the poison J that the house- 
party is about to merge into trageuy. Envious eyes are already 
turned toward Orringsby, the one man at the table who has not 
drunk a cocktail. Apprehension stirs, grows — grows more rapid- 
ly. There are the beginnings of cowardice and bravery. 

Hodson, the butler, is also beginning to comprehend. lie re- 
members the six left-over drinks, consumed in the kitchen by his 
permission. Strafford and Fraser return, not having found the 
poisoned glass. Strafford questions Hodson. The butler, pre- 
serving his trained servitor calm by a mighty effort, recalls the 
partly filled cocktail glass on the tray. He had fancied it con- 
tained the last drops trom the second man's emptied shaker. He 
had hesitated a moment, then filled it completely from his own 
shaker. This glass had then been served with the others. 

Strafford happens to think that there were extra cocktails left 
on the tray. There is hope in that thought. For one of them 
may contain the vanished poison. He orders Hodson to hasten 
outside and bring back the cocktails left on the tray. Hodson 
does not at once reveal the horrid truth. After all, he is a butler 
of breeding. He acts with decorum, even in an awful crisis like 
this. He solemnly vanishes. Once in the pantry, and alone, he 
crumples a bit. But only for a moment. He returns, announces 
apologetically that the left-over cocktails have been drunk below- 
stairs, "by the servants, sir." While Hodson makes the announce- 
ment the news is carried to the kitchen by another servant. Panic 
reigns in there. The French chef, in his Gallic fashion, throws 
fit after fit. The guests understand what Hodson's statement 
means. 

There is a doomed person, doomed surely, at the table or 
below-stairs. That person has not more than three days to live ! 
Someone has drunk a poisoned cocktail ! 

The guests and servants exhibit the craven or brave sides of 
their natures, according to their kind. It is a tense and terrible 
moment. For the first few minutes every vestige of artificiality 
is stripped from the tableful. Their dispositions are shamelessly 
naked. One person in the house is yet ignorant of the crisis — 
Ella, upstairs. 

Vivian, whose deepest fibre has always responded to the note 
of courage, turns to Manton, positively uplifted. Here is the 
acid test for that great love of theirs. She slips her hand into 



12 

his, contentedly. She, woman of red corpuscles and clean living, 
asks nothing better than to face this impending terror with the 
man she loves at her side. 

Strafford, the head of the house, is stricken. He blames him- 
self for the calamity. Announces that he desires the foregiveness 
of everyone, hopes that fate will let him draw the lot which 
his carelessness in an idle moment has made inevitable for some- 
one to receive. There is no hope of averting death. No human 
power can prevent the ravages of the poison. He knows, for he 
has evolved the formula. But he will not cease trying. The best 
toxic specialist in the country shall be telephoned for. 

Manton shows no trace of weakness under the first shock. 
He is of a nature unmoved — mainly through a certain sluggish- 
ness of mind — when the initial hint of danger manifests itself. 
But he resents the uplifted mood of Vivian. He sees no reason 
for his fiancee's restrained note of almost jubilation. It is the first 
symptom of a chasm which later divides them. 

Havens, quiet as ever, is also courageous. He thinks of but 
one person — Vivian. Vivian sees that this man is also brave, in 
spite of his funking — as she thinks — that stone-fence and water 
jump on horseback. Was she wrong in rating him a coward? 
She doesn't know, and there is no time to find out now. It is she 
and Manton together, under the shadow of the death angel's 
wing. 

Mrs. Morton puts on an assumed front of semi-jocularity. 
She is really terribly afraid. But her nature is to conceal any 
but the emotions which she thinks it desirable to show. So 
she plays her slangy, careless role at this juncture. Orringsby, 
shocked and stricken because of her peril, wishes he had drunk 
the cocktail and not she — and says so. Mrs. Morton tells him 
to cut out the Romeo and Juliet stuff, that he'd only look ridicu- 
lous doing an apothecary stunt on Juliet's grave. Orringsby is 
keen enough to sense the truth behind Mrs. Morton's slangv 
bluff. 

But fear, perhaps, at this moment sits sorest on the breast 
of the Rev. Dr. Wortley, rector of All Sinners'. This wordly 
minded clergyman, preacher of perfumed sermons to the rich, 
is staggered. For years he has been muttering conventional re- 
ligious comfort to parishioners slipping over the Great Divide. 
The words have come pat and aptly to his mouth. Xow he is 
facing his own crisis, and that of his wife and daughter — whom, 
in his tenacious, worcllv way, he loves dearly. He flies the flag 
of terror promptly, and his wife follows suit. 

Dot Wortley, in her shallow way fond of Ned Fraser, is too 
busily engaged in persuading- this youth that he is not totally to 
blame, to feel fear for herself as keenly as she will later. 

Vivian begs her guests to stand by each other in this crisis. 
Whatever occurs there must be no scattering to their homes. Her 



13 

father's entire fortune is at the service of any man or woman 
who has need of adjusting private matters in a hurry, as a pre- 
caution. And, besides, everyone will wish to have the advice of 
the famous toxic specialist from another city — whom at that 
very moment Strafford is urging by telephone to hasten to Red 
Gables. There might be hope. This is sound advice. Even in 
its terror the tableful gives heed to it. 

Strafford returns to the dining-room, bringing word that the 
toxic expert will start at once, will reach Red Gables before noon 
next day. Meanwhile, he, Strafford, will spend the night in his 
laboratory, seeking desperately to prove himself wrong about 
their being no antidote for the poison. 

Vivian, still uplifted, whispers to her father that news of 
her engagement is still untold. She insists that he inform the 
guests. Strafford does so. The table receives the news in stony 
apathy — it is too absorbed in selfish fear. Vivian radiates happi- 
ness in the midst of horror. Manton, awkward and ill at ease 
because of the incongruity of things, again fails to understand 
his fiancee. 

Havens alone, of all the guests, meets the occasion with 
tranquility. He arises, his beaker raised. He proposes the health 
of Vivian and Manton. Vivian looks at him gratefully — in that 
instant she knows Havens is not a coward, that she wronged him 
on the meadow^ that drag-hunt morning. 

There is a hesitating response to Havens' toast. Strafford, 
noting this, with a touch of irony assures his guests that there 
is not the slightest trace of poison in the very excellent vintage 
champagne provided. There is a sorry toast drunk — and the 
dinner guests leave the table. They scatter to face things in 
their own ways. In his room the Rev. Dr. Wortley holds his 
Bible, gropes for a comfort that he cannot find to dispense to his 
hysterical wife. 

Vivian gets an opportunity to talk with Havens. They go 
out upon the porch — it is moonlight. Vivian tells Havens that 
she wants him to forgdve her, that she was wrong when she mis- 
interpreted his refusal to take the stone-fence and water jump. 

Manton. Vivian being out of range for the moment, remem- 
bers Ella. He is the one who had urged her to drink the cock- 
tail. He is going to the secretary. But Mrs. Morton, rushing 
upstairs to give way to her own tremors in secret, finds Ella 
before he does. The horsey widow tells the secretarv what has 
happened, congratulates her on the fact that she at least is safe. 
Ella shows that she isn't, and Mrs. Morton learns about the cock- 
tail that Manton gave the girl. The horsey widow sees that 
something other than the possibility of being poisoned is worrying 
Ella, and half suspects the truth. 

Manton, when Mrs. Morton has vanished, contrives an un- 
observed interview with Ella. He is beginning to reflect upon 



14 

the situation, and as he thinks he begins to be afraid. Ella is 
doubly desperate — first on account of her situation, second be- 
cause of worry lest Manton will be the one to pay the penalty 
for drinking a poisoned cocktail. She reveals herself courageous 
as far as her own physical danger is concerned. But the inter- 
view just about completes the crumbling of Manton. The shock 
of announcement is over. He has met that with instinctive 
firmness. But now — panic is just around the corner for the dare- 
devil rider to hounds. Ella sees he is weakening, but does not 
despise him for it. She is the sort of girl who loves, and keeps 
on loving. 

Strafford spends the night working unavailingly, trying to 
prove himself wrong. The toxic expert arrives the next day 
and closets himself with the chemist. They emerge only to con- 
firm Strafford's worst fear. But the toxic expert consents to 
remain, to try strenuous life-prolonging measures when the 
victim of the deadly drug has actually been revealed. The hours 
pass like those in the death house at Sing Sing. 

Vivian, the uplifted, is the nucleus of what shaken self pos- 
session the houseful displays. This girl, full flung into the acid 
test of courage and love, keeps the cowards bucked up. stimu- 
lates the brave. Havens is her able ally. She finds that it is 
he who understands her mood, who interprets her slightest nod. 
And she finds, also, that Manton does not understand, is not of 
assistance. Manton cannot comprehend this exultation in his 
fiancee's facing of possible death. He turns for comfort, the 
obvious forms of comfort for which obvious minded men yearn 
when in trouble, to Ella. He spends much time in the stable and 
at the kennels — he can understand horses and dogs. 

Vivian, unrealizing, is commencing to see the difference be- 
tween Havens and Manton, is beginning to plant the seed of 
sudden love for a man she once dubbed a coward. 

It is the second day after the drinking of the poisoned cock- 
tail. Bit by bit the three days of grace, before someone pays 
the penaltA^, are slipping oast. 

The Rev. Dr. Wortley, helplessly ransacking his Bible, is 
still self-confessedly unable to find comfort for himself or others. 
Little by little, however, he is fighting his way toward clutching 
a fragment of the old faith. 

Orringsby, the lawyer, the one absolutely safe guest, is en- 
deavoring to induce Mrs. Manton to marrv him at once — wants 
to motor into town and get a license. The horsey a^d do°-gv 
widow is half persuaded, but there is a secret in her life which 
she has never disclosed, and now — with the possibility of death 
so close, and not wishing to face it without utter frankness — 
slip cannot marrv Orringsby, or even consent to marrv him, 
without rcvealment. 



15. 

There is a preparation for dreaded emergency on the part of 
many guests — much telephoning and letter writing, much putting 
of one's house in order. And to Orringsby, the lawyer, trusted 
friend and attorney, comes surprising confidential knowledge un- 
sought. Orringsby finds himself occupied busily drawing up 
new wills, or codicils to old ones. He is actually working as hard 
as if he were in his downtown office. ■ 

Among those who come to the lawyer are Strafford and Mrs. 
Morton. Strafford, after making ample provision for his daugh- 
ter, leaves his fortune to repair the injury done by his careless- 
ness — if the results of secrets revealed during the time of sus- 
pense have been damaging to anyone. If there is no damage to 
repair, the remainder of his wealth goes to push forward the 
cause of medical chemistry experimenting. 

Timidly, and one of the last to consult the lawyer, comes 
Mrs. Morton. It is hard for her to do this thing — for it concerns 
her secret. She also wishes to make a will. Orringsby tells her 
that it is lawyer and client now ; she may speak as she would 
to an attorney. Mrs. Morton then wills everything to a daughter, 
ten years old, being brought up in a convent. No one knows 
that she has this daughter, offspring of an irregular union be- 
tween the widow, when she was a very young woman, and a 
handsome scoundrel employed on her father's Arizona ranch. 

The handsome scoundrel, a sort of wastrel son of good parents, 
died in a drunken brawl before the girl's secret was discovered 
by her parents, and before, consequently, they could force a 
quiet marriage, to temporarily solve the situation. Mrs. Morton's 
husband, the jolly clubman she married when she was 23, never 
dreamed of the existence of the child. Mrs. Morton shows Or- 
ringsby a photograph of the girl. Says she has been forced to 
conceal her true mother's heart, lavish her affection on horses 
and dogs while, all the time, there was tugging in her bosom 
the call to her daughter. She wants to leave her child not only 
money, but in care of someone who will be able to safeguard 
her, to prevent her from making the sort of emotional love-mis- 
take her mother made. 

Orringsby, mightily moved, listens. He drafts the will, prom- 
ising that he will do what she wishes if anything happens to 
her — he, Orringsby, is the man to whom she wishes to confide 
her child as guardian. Relieved and grateful, and ashamedlv 
penitent, the sporty widow, for once simple and unaffected in 
manner and speech, turns away. She thinks her own love story — 
her one real one, for she does love Orringsbv — is done with. But 
the lawver, admiring her courage, not a whit less in love with 
her because he knows her secret, grabs her. holds her, renews 
his vows of faith in her, swears that if the gods are good to 
them and she comes out of the experience unscathed by poison. 



16 

they shall be married, and her child shall be with them, legally 
adopted. 

Airs. Morton, radiant, forgets everything but her great love 
and gratitude. She promises to marry him. And then, thinking 
of the wonderful happiness she will lose, if the poison takes her, 
she confesses that she is a horrible coward at heart, not at all 
brave, that her front is pure bluff. Orringsby has a simple, scared 
woman on his hands, who he must comfort. And he likes the 
job. Mrs. Clint Morton, stripped of her assumed pose, is a 
real woman. Despite the danger she is in, he thanks God for 
the acid test that has unmasked her true self. 

Meanwhile Strafford, the cold scientist, an avowed atheist, 
but not a blatant or offensive one, finding that he and the toxic 
expert are unable to do anything, bethinks him of this thing 
called religion. He takes counsel with the Rev. Dr. Wortley, 
who cannot conceal from his host his own shaken frame of mind. 

The clergyman knows that once in his career he had a firm 
grip upon a real and sustaining comfort and inspiration in times 
of tribulation. He tells Strafford that he is hunting to regain 
it. Invokes the help of the scientist, with his trained power of 
reason and ability to pursue a theme to its logical end. Tells 
Strafford that the chemistry of a Divine Providence is the only 
science that will avail now, either to ward off the impending doom 
of one of the houseful, or to comfort and sustain that one and 
his friends and family if the doom must really fall. The Rev. 
Dr. Wortley, half unconsciously, is grasping anew the old time 
faith. 

There is an attempt to brazen out the approach of fate, on 
the part of some of the younger set, who knock the balls about 
in the billiard room, and even half-heartedly make a "book" on 
their chances. This is the high-ball drinking set, the avowed 
cronies of Ned Fraser. But young Fraser himself, still remorse- 
ful, and blaming himself for all of the trouble, is not in mood 
to brazen things out at all. He is really in love with Dot Wortley, 
and he and that shallow but fairly plucky girl, are making plans 
what to do — if they are lucky enough to be among the spared. 

A ripple of terror, but a half concealed, satisfied terror, runs 
over the house whenever any guest develops a pain of any sort. 
The faintest sign of headache, or indigestion, is suspected of 
being the first symptom of poisoning. A certain part of the 
houseful plans to walk, run. swill nostrums of sorts, do something 
desperately radical, when the first twinge comes. There are sev- 
eral agreements on the part of the men not to let each other eo 
to sleep after the third day — the poison numbs, according to the 
dope of Strafford and the toxic expert, and may attack one while 
asleep. 

And now it is the third day. 



17 

Manton is breaking fast. Havens and Vivian, on the contrary, 
are both uplifted, facing the crisis with unswerving grit and 
nobility of character. And the Rev. Dr. Wortley has anew laid 
hold upon his belief in God. He never can be the preacher of 
perfumed sermons again. He and Strafford have another mo- 
ment together. The clergyman tells Strafford that he has fought 
his fight and won. He so impresses the scientist, who has 
watched the failure of all that science can do to repair a hideous 
blunder, that Strafford drops on his knees beside the transfigured 
minister. For the first time in his life he utters a prayer — a 
simple and sincere one — to the God in whom he had never be- 
lieved. 

Vivian in vain tries to buck Manton up. She holds hard to 
her belief in him. And Havens, unselfishly, helps her. He does 
not wish Vivian to be stabbed by finding out that her love and 
faith in a man is not all sufficient to keep that man firm in the 
path of courage. He also fails. Manton behaves queerly ; even 
the billiard room gang, trying to brazen things out, knows that 
his nerve is gone. He turns to Ella, the simply clinging woman, 
for the comfort he so sorely needs. As long as Manton needs 
to be helped through a crisis, Ella forgets her own fear. Man- 
ton is nearer to her, in his cowardice, than he has ever been be- 
fore. 

Hodson, the impassive butler, weaves in and out, relentlessly 
keeping the service in the Strafford home up to the mark. Red 
Gables is not going to deteriorate just because a funeral is on 
the cards. It is Hodson who whips the panicky servants into 
line. Hodson in his way is a man of faith, too. He hands out 
the hard-baked consolation of a Church of England member. 
He is no sentimentalist, Hodson. He believes in efficiency. 

Evening of the third day draws near. The summons may 
come that night. Vivian, distressed because of an ominous in- 
stinct that Manton is not really dwelling with her in her uplifted 
plane, seeks him to have a talk which will clear the atmosphere. 
She finds him alone with Ella, seeing unmistakably that they have 
been lovers, understanding that it is to Ella that her fiancee has 
turned for real comfort. She half suspects how it is, actually, 
between them. 

Vivian is sweet to Ella, who is torn between love for Manton 
and a sense of disloyalty to the employer she has idolized. Man- 
ton is hang-doggy, utterly revealed as he is. Vivian does not 
storm, or even rebuke. Disillusioned, she turns away, heart- 
broken. For the moment her mood of uplift wavers and com- 
pletely vanishes. So this is what has come out of the acid test. 
which she and the man she loved were to undergo together ! 
Vivian is stricken to her foundations. 

Manton, stungr by a double realization of cowardice and what 
he has lost in the way of an heiress bride, now has a revulsion 



18 

of feeling, violent and perfectly natural to a man of his type. 
He visits his resentment on Ella, the loyal and clinging girl he 
has compromised. Savagely blaming her for his awkward situa- 
tion, he storms away from her clutching hands, leaves her petri- 
fied with anguish. 

Havens meets Manton, rushing toward the stable. It is late 
afternoon, dusk. Sees his rival's agitation. Tries to stop him, 
fancying that the long expected break-down of nerve has come. 
With a curse and a blow Manton pushes past. Havens, hurry- 
ing to the house, meets Vivian. Sees that she, too, is stricken. 

Vivian's distress looses Havens' grip upon himself. Before 
he knows it, he is telling the girl that he loves her, that he craves 
only the right to stand by her and help her face the terrible 
thing which will come in the night. He makes it plain that he 
realizes he has no right to speak to her, an engaged woman, but 
that the presence of death — perhaps for him — has shelved for 
the moment convention. 

Vivian, stabbed by disillusionment, and for the moment simply 
a broken woman, much like Ella, does not rebuff him. Havens 
learns something of what has happened — that Vivian does not 
consider herself engaged any longer to Manton. He has a 
premonition that Manton, in flight from his own cowardice, may 
do something desperate. Havens hastens to the stables after 
the frantic Manton. The latter, spurring a horse viciously, and 
followed by one of Vivian's Great Danes, passes him in the 
stable lane. Havens throws a saddle on another horse, and spurs 
after the panicky clubman. 

Manton rides like hell cross-country, while the house-party 
eyes one another tremulously on the last evening. The Rev. Dr. 
Wortley quietly asks Strafford's permission to speak a few 
words to the guests before they disperse to their rooms. The 
clergyman, who has found himself, tells his friends that there 
is just one source to which they may turn for help — and that is 
God. Science has failed, their own puny human selves are in- 
efficacious. He confesses that he has been derelict in earnestness 
in the past. But these three days have held his soul up to the 
mirror of truth. 

Hodson, the punctilious butler, with a deprecatory cough, in- 
terrupts the clergyman, whispers a desire to be allowed to have 
the servants summoned too — they need the consolation that the 
minister can give. The Rev. Dr. Wortley looks at Strafford, 
who nods. Hodson marshals the sheeplike and aghast menials 
into the background. Mrs. Morton has made it her job to go 
upstairs and bring down the pathetic secretary. Vivian has not 
known about the cocktail that Ella has been given by Manton. 
Onlv Mrs. Morton knows that, and she has kept her counsel. 

Manton in his mad riding swerves into cross-countrv where 
he and Havens rode with Vivian the dav of the drap'-hunt. The 



19 

stone-fence and water jump is dead ahead. Havens is pursuing. 
The panicky clubman urges his runaway horse straight at the 
obstacle. He is riding without any control of the animal. 
Havens is striving to get hold of his bridle before the leap is 
reached. But Havens is too late. Manton, yelling like a mad- 
man, and flogging his mount, clears the jump. Havens, hold- 
ing his mount in perfect form, skims after him, a pretty, skilful 
jump. Manton has turned and seen. Then he beats his horse 
again, and rides off, Havens following. At the end of the 
breakneck gallop Manton comes to himself a bit, sullenly con- 
sents to return to the house, and, equally ungraciously, admits 
to Havens that he was wrong about the latter's being afraid to 
take the stone-fence and water jump that other day when they 
were riding cross-country (the day Manton became engaged 
to Vivian). Manton naturally makes this sort of admission 
first. There is a "bunk" sporting flavor about the man. He is 
true to his type. He comes back to Red Gables, ashamed not 
so much of his lack of courage, as for having it made public. 
He is sullen, and resentful. He has used his horse cruelly. 

The clergyman finishes his remarks in the living room. He 
turns to Strafford, who admits that science has failed. If there 
be a Higher Power, it alone can protect them, and he is eager 
to proclaim his belief in such a Higher Power if it does protect. 
The Rev. Dr. Wortley then offers a simple, brief prayer. All 
kneel. It is a solemn, hushed moment. Then the house-party 
guests disperse to wait. 

Vivian, in her room, writes a letter to Havens, telling him 
she loves him — that knowledge of it came to her in the flash- 
ing moment when he told her of his devotion. 

Orringsby and Mrs. Morton are together. Suddenly the 
widow thinks of Ella. She goes to find the shrinking girl, who 
is alone, sobbing in some recess. 

It is around eleven when Havens and Manton ride up to 
the stable door. 

In the billiard-room the high-ball crowd, pondering what the 
Rev. Dr. Wortley has said, is knocking the balls around. There 
is no book-making jesting now. It is too near the hour for some- 
one's death knell. 

Xed Fraser and Dot Wortley are the only ones in the drawing 
room. They are talking earnestlv. Both of these voung folks 
have emerged rather triumphantly from their artificial selves 
in three days. The girl has been the stronger of the two. 

Strafford and the toxic expert sit waiting, with every known 
medical appliance readv for the hopeless fight against death 
when the poison manifests itself. Strafford tears the poison 
formula into bits and tosses them into an ash-trav. burning 
them. The cursed solution is never to be touched by anyone 
again. That is all he can do. 



20 

Manton and Havens are on the veranda, Havens bucking 
up the shamefaced clubman. 

Hodson, the punctilious butler, not foregoing his usual duties 
because someone is to die on the morrow, tiptoes into the living 
room. He finds Dot Wortley and Ned Fraser. He begs their 
pardon, but will it disturb them if he cleans up a bit and winds 
the eight day clock on the fireplace mantel? The clock has never 
been allowed to run down ; it is a very handsome clock, and a 
little neglect would injure its mechanism. Getting permission, 
Hodson steps to the mantel and fumbles for the key. 

Reaching behind one of the gilt cornices, he finds the cock- 
tail glass containing the poison — the cocktail glass that is half 
full of amber fluid. 

Hodson, stunned, holds out the glass. Then he gives vent to 
an exclamation, which is bad form for a servant, he knows, 
and for which he apologizes. 

Ned Fraser and Dot Wortley jump to their feet. Hodson, 
speechless, indicates where he found the glass. Fraser remem- 
bers that this is where he shoved it when Dot Wortley's car 
tooted up under the porte cochere. Dot Wortley, finally com- 
prehending what it means — that there is no danger for any- 
one — gives a hysterical cry. 

This cry is heard by the nervous household. Everyone thinks 
the death throes of someone have begun. The house guests 
and servants rush downstairs and into the living room. Among 
them, also attracted by the cry of the clergyman's daughter, come 
Havens and Manton. 

Vivian, Strafford, the toxic expert, his remedies in his hand ; 
Mrs. Morton, holding the shrinking Ella ; and Orringsby, all 
appear. So do the Rev. Dr. Wortley and his wife. The latter, 
realizing that her child is giving vent to the outcry, thinks Dot 
Wortley is the one to reap the harvest of death. Mrs. Wortley 
becomes hysterical too. 

Hodson stills the tumult by respectfully explaining. Strafford 
takes the glass. Just as the ripple of horror and fear had swept 
over the house-party in the beginnings, now a ripple of awkward 
relief touches the roomful. 

Vivian is near Havens and Manton. She faces them. Havens 
and Manton both read her mind. Havens does not need to 
see the letter, which she tucked into her bosom when she hurried 
downstairs at Dot Wortley's cry. 

It is Ella, the pretty secretary, who makes the next move. 
Manton has had no glance for her. She realizes he doesn't care 
for her. Now that the fear of death is removed, he forgets 
to turn to the girl who worships him. Ella breaks from the af- 
fectionate grasp of Mrs. Morton. Before anyone knows what 
she is about, she has snatched the cocktail glass with the poison 
from Strafford. 



21 

She is putting it to her lips when Vivian calls to her. 

Affection for her employer, instinct — both make her halt her 
arm. She glances despairingly, hunted, at Vivian, then at Man- 
ton. The latter stands nervously, watching her. But he gives 
no sign for her to drop the glass, no hint that he will see her 
through. The house-party, unacquainted with the affair between 
Manton and the secretary, is aghast. 

Vivian, superb in her pose of authority, bids the girl hold 
her hand. Striding toward the distracted secretary, she takes the 
poison from her. She stands, the poison glass in her right 
hand, her left arm about Ella. She orders Manton to come to 
them. He does, hypnotized. Ella watches him approach, in- 
credulous ; but hope is emerging from her despair. Manton, 
swayed by Vivian's scorn and indignant command, takes Ella. 
Vivian releases the girl gently. She watches Manton lead the 
pretty secretary out of the group, and out of the room. 

Vivian, at the fireplace, then pours the poison slowly from the 
glass. As the deadly liquid touched the flames, there is flare of 
green and red. Then the poison is gone. 

The house-party disperses, to show joy and thankfulness,' 
each as he had shown despair and fear, or courage, as the case 
had been. Havens and Vivian face each other alone in front 
of the fire. Their eyes, rather than their words, tell their story. 



THE END. 



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